Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.

First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared:

Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members of Hizbullah being trained in the camp, the radio quoted intelligence sources as saying. According to the report, Tehran is funding and supplying the training base

Within three days a suspected terrorist with alleged ties to the radical group Hezbollah was able to secure a Belizean identity. Rafik Mohammed Labboun Allaboun arrived in the country on August twenty-ninth and when he left, he had a Belizean birth certificate, a drivers license and a passport all issued in the name of Wilhelm Dyck, a Belizean Mennonite of Shipyard who was born in February of 1976 and died two months later.

Against the backdrop of riots across the region, Iranian officials have become even more threatening than usual. Hojjat al-Eslam Kazem Tabatabaei, Zabol Friday prayer leader, for example, called for “a jihad to annihilate the Arrogance [the United States],” while Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamadani warned the United States to “expect harsher reactions.” It would be a mistake for the Obama administration to dismiss Iranian threats as mere rhetoric, given the elaborate preparations the Iranians and Hezbollah appear to have engaged in, south of our border.

I am amazed at their network, planning and patience. Nobody in DC seems to care how many have probably already come across the border between Mexico and Texas. It would appear that no Federal agency has learned a thing since 9/11.

3
posted on 09/18/2012 9:41:03 PM PDT
by Grams A
(The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)

I am scared for our future if Obama is reelected. Just watching Glenn Beck prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Admins story on Libya is a FLAT OUT LIE has me more worried than ever before that Americans might be fooled by the Obama lie once again. The president is doing nothing to stop these people. Literally nothing. Have we sanctioned Nicaragua? Why haven’t we!?
Daniel Ortega takes his orders directly from Chavez, who is providing access to Latin America for terror networks. This comes straight from the top. The Nicaraguan government is sheltering terrorists. Heck, who knows how many are training in the jungles of Morales’ Bolivia? Ahmadinejad is photographed embracing these tyrants. What more evidence do we need?!

The worst part is, the majority of Americans have no idea. They don’t know a single thing about what is going on out there. They’re all glued to Gray’s Anatomy, unaware that the destruction of our way of life is being engineered both outside and in. WAKE UP AMERICA!

Apart from David Cameron, Obama is the leader who has the most contact with the Prime Minister of Turkey. He is a belligerent Muslim, allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, who once said “our mosques are our barracks, our minarets are bayonets”. This is the man who is advising Obama on the nature of the brotherhood and how to handle Israel.
What can we do? Our military won’t say anything with the admin watching every Facebook post. Our media is complicit.
The only way to create a future worth living in is to vote Obama out. We cannot lose with this much at stake.

When listening to Mark Levin last week he mentioned a news story that he had just seen that described 2 middle eastern men being stopped at our border crossing from Mexico. They were stopped by Mexican border guards. I was working and half listening but was shocked by what he said and immediately checked FR and other sites like Drudge but never found any mention of the story. Wondered if anyone here had heard it. I haven’t had time to go back in Mark’s archives to try to find it but it was quite alarming and I couldn’t believe I never heard about it again.

SNIPPET: My previous entries here will give you a taste of what Ive been seeing north of the lower 48. Im quite certain a number of Iranian illegals (as in agents not using diplomatic cover) remain.

SNIPPET: “His topic was The United States and Iran and in keeping with his past talks on the subject, Zunes assured the audience of approximately fifty people that Iran is not a threat. He claimed that Irans nuclear weapons would not be ready for another four to five years; that Iran would never strike first with nuclear weapons; that there are no Hezbollah cells in South America and on Americas southern border; and that reports of Iranian-sponsored global terrorism are exaggerated.”

Washington, D.C.  Today, U.S. Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, announced that on Wednesday, March 21 he will convene an investigative hearing to examine the terror threat that Iran poses to the U.S. homeland. The hearing is entitled: Iran, Hezbollah, and the Threat to the Homeland.

King said: The disruption last fall of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States at a popular Washington restaurant was a wake-up call for all Americans. Last months forthright comments by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that the Iranian regime is now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States has further heightened concern about an attack by Iran on the homeland. At this hearing, we will focus on Irans primary terrorism proxies, including Hezbollah, which already has a robust network within the U.S., and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the real potential that the regime will activate its network of operatives to carry out an attack here.
(Excerpt) Read more at homeland.house.gov ...

Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States

A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States.

Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without bond since that time.

According to the indictment, from approximately April 2009 to Nov. 17, 2009, Gerald and others conspired to smuggle four Indian nationals into the United States. Allegedly, Gerald and her co-conspirators fraudulently obtained Belizean visas for the Indian nationals and escorted them from India to Belize, moving through various countries in Central and South America. Gerald allegedly provided lodging for all four Indian nationals in Belize while further smuggling arrangements were made.

In August 2009, Gerald allegedly arranged transportation for one of the Indian nationals to cross the border from Belize into Mexico where he met with Geralds co-conspirator, who escorted him through Mexico. In Monterrey, Mexico, Geralds co-conspirator paid a Mexico-based smuggler to illegally transport the individual across the Mexico-U.S. border to Houston. After making these arrangements, Geralds co-conspirator allegedly flew to Houston where the co-conspirator received the Indian national at a motel approximately 10 days later. The smugglers who delivered the Indian national to Geralds co-conspirator in Houston allegedly demanded and received a smuggling payment prior to releasing him. The Indian national smuggled to Houston is currently being administratively detained by ICE, awaiting removal. The whereabouts of the other three Indian nationals allegedly harbored by Gerald in Belize is currently unknown.

If convicted, Gerald faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy, and 10 years in prison for each of the four counts of encouraging and inducing aliens to come to the United States for profit. Additionally, she is subject to the maximum penalty for each of the four counts of bringing aliens to the United States for profit, which is 10 years for a first or second violation, and 15 years for any other violation. She is also subject to a fine of up to $250,000.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation was conducted by ICEs Office of Investigations in Miami and Houston, with the critical assistance of the ICE Attaché offices in El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil, Singapore and Panama, as well as the ICE Office of Intelligence in Washington, and the Alien Smuggling Interdiction Unit of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Washington. El Salvadoran authorities, particularly the Direción General de Migración y Extranjería (El Salvador Immigrations) and the Grupo Especial de Investigaciones Nacionales e Internacionales (El Salvador Police-GEINI) also provided invaluable assistance.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Jerry Massie and Jessica Morris of the Criminal Divisions Domestic Security Section, with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward Gallagher and Douglas Davis of the Southern District of Texas.

#

Note: The following text is a quote:

www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-crm-148.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Guyanese National Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States

Annita Devi Gerald, a Guyanese national, pleaded guilty today to bringing an alien into the United States for commercial gain, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton.

Gerald, 52, pleaded guilty today in Houston before U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes. At sentencing, scheduled for May 17, 2010, Gerald faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of three years, and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Todays guilty plea puts another alien smuggling organizer out of business, said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. Traveling the globe seeking people willing to pay for illegal entry into the United States, this defendant sought personal riches in exchange for disregarding the immigration laws of our country.

My office will continue to work closely with the Department of Justice and ICE to pursue international smugglers who engage in elaborate schemes to import undocumented and/or fraudulently documented aliens into the United States through Houston and South Texas, said U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno of the Southern District of Texas.

ICE targets organizations that try to compromise the integrity of our immigration system for the sake of profit, said ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton . The network of ICE offices around the world as well as our partnerships with law enforcement agencies around the globe, enable ICE to shut down these human smuggling operations.

According to plea documents, Gerald provided assistance to undocumented aliens from India in their efforts to illegally enter the United States. Gerald admitted that she and her co-conspirators prepared letters of invitation for several Indian nationals from a trading and agricultural company affiliated with Gerald. These letters falsely proclaimed the Indian nationals were farming experts whose expertise was needed for a project in Belize. The letters were used to assist the aliens in obtaining the Belizean visas that enabled them to board aircraft and transit through numerous countries in route to the United States.

According to plea documents, in July 2009, Gerald escorted two Indian nationals on a series of flights from Singapore to Belize. In addition, Gerald admitted to providing lodging for the aliens in Belize while they awaited additional smuggling arrangements; to obtaining a Mexican immigration stamp for one aliens passport to facilitate domestic travel in Mexico; and arranging for transportation from Belize to Mexico for one of the aliens.

Upon Geralds direction, one of the aliens was smuggled into Mexico and then into the United States, according to court documents. Gerald was arrested in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, on a criminal complaint charging her with conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, before any of the other aliens could be smuggled into the United States.

The investigation was conducted by ICEs Office of Investigations in Miami and Houston, with the critical assistance of the ICE Attaché offices in El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil, Singapore and Panama, as well as the ICE Office of Intelligence in Washington, and the Alien Smuggling Interdiction Unit of Customs and Border Protection in Washington. El Salvadoran authorities, particularly the Direción General de Migración y Extranjería (El Salvador Immigrations) and the Grupo Especial de Investigaciones Nacionales e Internacionales (El Salvador Police-GEINI) also provided invaluable assistance.

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Jerry Massie and Jessica Morris of the Criminal Divisions Domestic Security Section, with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward Gallagher and Douglas Davis of the Southern District of Texas.

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah was indicted in the Eastern District of New York in July of 2010 for his alleged role in a terrorist plot to attack targets in the United States and the United Kingdom. One plot was uncovered in September of 2009 and targeted New York City’s subway system. That failed plot was directed by senior al-Qaida leadership in Pakistan and was also directly related to a scheme by al-Qaida plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United States. El Shukrijumah is thought to have served as one of the leaders of al-Qaida ‘s external operations program.

Click here to listen to a Public Service Announcement about this terrorist

SNIPPET: “President Chávez also announced during the visit that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a nuclear village in Venezuela with Iranian assistance so that the Venezuelan people can count in the future on this marvelous resource for peaceful purposes. The transfer of Iranian nuclear technology from Iran would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions - 1737 (2006), 1747 ( 2007), and 1803 (2008) - that imposed restrictions on Irans nuclear technology transfers.

In late September 2009, comments by Venezuelan officials offered conflicting information about Irans support for Venezuelas search for uranium deposits. Venezuelan Minister of Basic Industry and Mining Rodolfo Sanz said that Iran was assisting Venezuela in detecting uranium reserves in the west and southwest of Venezuela. “

SNIPPET: “Nevertheless, on the diplomatic front, Iran has opened embassies over the past several years in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua, as well as in Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay. This is in addition to having existing embassies in Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela.”

SNIPPET: “As noted above, President Ahmadinejad has visited Venezuela several times, and has also visited Bolivia, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Cuba. In early May 2009, a scheduled first trip by Ahmadinejad to Brazil was unexpectedly postponed until after Irans election in June. There had been some protests in Brazil against Ahmadinejads visit, but the trip ultimately took place in November 2009. Brazilian President Lula da Silva maintains that the West should not isolate Iran. On the same trip, the Iranian President once again visited Bolivia and Venezuela. “

SNIPPET: “In March 2009 congressional testimony, Admiral James G. Stavridis, then commander of the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom), also asserted that the main concern about Irans increased activity in Latin America is its links to Hezbollah. He maintained that there was Hezbollah activity throughout South America, particularly the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay as well as parts of Brazil and the Caribbean Basin.”

SNIPPET: “Mark P. Sullivan is a specialist in Latin American Affairs for the Congressional Research Service. It is a portion of a longer January 25, 2010 CRS report, Latin America: Terrorism Issues (PDF)

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not of Spero News.”

Now Arizona Has More Than One War In Our Backyards MY OPINION: Hezbollah using drug routes
AZBIZ.com - Inside Tucson Business ^ | April 23, 2010 | Opinion by Lionel Waxman
Posted on April 27, 2010 12:47:10 AM PDT by Cindy

“Now Arizona has more than one war in our backyards MY OPINION: Hezbollah using drug routes” By Lionel Waxman, Inside Tucson Business Published on Friday, April 23rd, 2010

SNIPPET: “For years, I have been warning that the Mexican drug war will sweep over Southern Arizona if we dont close the border. Well now the war is here. But today, I am writing to warn you of another war. It is using the drug routes but it isnt connected to the cartels.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group, is on its way to involving Tubac, Tucson, Phoenix and other parts of Arizona in the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as the drug trade. Where are our NIMBYs?

For at least four years, the Hispanic American Center for Economic Research has been keeping an eye on a Hezbollah militia that has taken root in South America in the whats known as the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.”

An indictment was handed down Aug. 30 by the Southern District Court of New York that shows a connection between Hezbollah - the proxy army of Iran and a designated terrorist organization - and the drug cartels that violently plague the U.S.-Mexico...a well-known international arms dealer was trying to orchestrate an arms-for-drugs deal in which cocaine from FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which works with Mexican drug cartels to take cocaine into America - would be traded for thousands of weapons housed by a Hezbollah operative in Mexico.

This most recent case brings up several questions:

Why would a member of Hezbollah be in Mexico? Why would Hezbollah need thousands of weapons in Mexico? Why are members of Hezbollah willing to work with FARC? Perhaps to exchange weapons for drugs? If Hezbollah has guns in Mexico and wants drugs, isn’t it logical to assume that it is trading with more accessible Mexican drug cartels?

This is just the most recent incident in which it’s clear that Hezbollah may have a presence in Mexico and along our southern border. There have been more incidents - which have been ignored by the Obama administration and the Department of Homeland Security...

The evidence is there: Hezbollah’s cooperation with countries across South America; Highly sophisticated tunnels for transferring drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, ones very similar to the tunnels dug by Hezbollah into Israel; The close relationship between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the increase in Iranian nationals traveling through Venezuela to receive false documents, which they use to cross into the United States.

...(during summer) it was reported that Jameel Nasr (Arab name), a Mexican national with ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon, “entrusted with forming a base in South America and the United States to carry out operations against Israeli and Western targets,” was arrested by the Mexican government.

Days later, a cell-phone-detonated car bomb - the first of its kind reported used by Mexican drug cartels - was deployed just across the U.S.-Mexico border in Juarez. On Aug. 27, another car bomb exploded in a U.S.-Mexico border state...

SNIPPET: “Univision has aired a story about Iranian intelligence activities in Latin America, including Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, and Cuba, not to mention Miami. The focus of the Iranian activity was on cyber attacks. The targets: US government networks and critical infrastructure to include nuclear power plants. The reports shed light on, among other things, the Iranian use of religious training and missionary work as a cover.”

“La Amenaza Iraní” looks at Iran’s growing political, economic and military ties in Latin America, and the threat this offensive poses to the Latin American region and the United States. The documentary, which was produced in collaboration with Univision News’ Investigative unit, reveals exclusive findings, including secret video and audio recordings that provide a rare window into an alleged Iranian-backed cyber attack against the United States from Mexico. “La Amenaza Iraní” also features unseen video foo

“US Expels Venezuela Consul for Possible Involvement in Terrorism Against US (VIDEO)”

Miami

SNIPPET: “After U.S. lawmakers and federal agencies investigated reports that Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats in Mexico were involved in plotting cyberattacks against U.S. targets, including nuclear power plants, the US today expelled one of the diplomats — Livia Antonieta Acosta Noguera — who was Venezuela’s Consul General in Miami.”

PHILADELPHIAMoussa Ali Hamdan, 38, a dual citizen of the United States and Lebanon and a former resident of Brooklyn, New York, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia today after being extradited from Paraguay. He is being held pending a detention hearing. Hamdan is among several defendants charged in a conspiracy to provide material support to Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization. He was indicted November 24, 2009, along with nine co-defendants. Hamdan was taken into U.S. custody in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Thursday, by U.S. Marshals who escorted him to Washington, D.C., where members of the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force took him into custody.

At the time of the indictment, Hamdan had left the United States. On June 15, 2010, Paraguayan authorities arrested him in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of Paraguay for the crime of material support of terrorism.

Hamdan is charged in 28 of the 31 counts in the indictment, including conspiring to provide material support to Hizballah in the form of proceeds from the sale of counterfeit money, stolen (genuine) money, and fraudulent passports. According to the indictment, Hamdan and several other defendants were also charged with several counts of transporting stolen goods, trafficking in counterfeit goods, and making false statements to government officials.

According to a related criminal complaint Hamdan began purchasing purportedly stolen cellular telephones from a cooperating witness acting as an agent of the government and participated in the purchase and transportation of purportedly stolen goods on numerous occasions. These stolen goods included cellular telephones, laptop computers, Sony Play Station 2 systems, and automobiles, which the conspirators caused to be transported to destinations outside Pennsylvania, including overseas destinations such as Lebanon and Benin (Africa). Hamdan also allegedly bought counterfeit goodsnamely, counterfeit Nike® shoes and Mitchell & Ness® sports jerseysfrom the cooperating witness. The complaint details efforts by defendants Moussa Ali Hamdan and his co-defendants to sell the CW counterfeit United States currency for the purpose of raising funds for Hizballah. In total, the conspirators provided the CW with approximately $10,000 in counterfeit United States currency. The complaint also alleges that certain of Hamdans co-defendants generated additional funds for Hizballah by selling fraudulent passports. The CW and the defendants participated in the purchase of two fake passportsone from the United Kingdom and one from Canadafor the benefit of Hizballah. Hamdan allegedly agreed to pay $10,000 towards the purchase of these passports, in order to satisfy a debt he owed to the CW.

If convicted of all charges, Hamdan faces a statutory maximum sentence of 260 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations Joint Terrorism Task Force, the New Jersey State Police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the United States Secret Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Philadelphia Police Department, Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Federal Air Marshals, Pennsylvania State Police, and the Philadelphia Police Department.

It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nancy Beam Winter and Vineet Gauri, and National Security Division Counterterrorism Section Trial Attorney Jolie F. Zimmerman.

The U.S. Attorneys Office would like to extend special thanks to the Paraguayan judicial and law enforcement authorities, including the U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay, for their invaluable assistance in the arrest and subsequent extradition of Hamdan, as well as the Office of International Affairs and U.S. Embassy, Asuncion, Diplomatic Security personnel who were involved in ensuring Hamdans capture and return to the United States.

Connecting the South American Terror Dots
FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | August 9, 2004 | David Meir-Levi
Posted on August 9, 2004 4:47:20 AM PDT by SJackson

Dot # 1: A Growing Threat in the Tri-Border Area of South America. (Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America. A Report Prepared under an Interagency Agreement by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, July 2003.)

Since the early 1980s, Arab terrorists have been sending thousands of their cohorts to the almost inaccessible jungle and mountain region between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay (known as the TBA, Tri-Border Area or La Triple Frontera). Terror training camps and arsenals have been established, virtually out of the reach of local law enforcement or defense forces; and elements from Hezbollah, al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Lebanese Drug mafia operate in partnership, freely and openly in conjunction with local organized crime and corrupt government officials.

The TBA has become a virtual haven for Islamic terror groups and a base for terror operations against South American targets. The large and growing Arab population of these states (in excess of 750,000 by local estimates) provides a community highly conducive to the establishment of Islamic terrorist sleeper cells throughout the area. The attacks in Buenos Aires on the Israeli embassy (3/17/1992) and the Jewish Community Center (7/18/1994) are believed to have originated from terror bases in the TBA. Since the mid-90s, government forces have foiled many more terror attacks against American, Jewish and Israeli targets, arresting some of the perpetrators.

CNN reported that an Islamic terrorist summit meeting was held in the TBA in late 2002, to plot attacks in South America and abroad. Security forces believe that future targets include USA and Israeli government offices, Jewish community buildings, hotels, tourism centers, airports and facilities of multinational corporations.

The TBA terrorist haven also operates an immense money-laundering project, reaping profits from their partnerships with the FARC and narcotics traffickers in the widespread South American drug trade. Government estimates place the total amount of money laundered since 1992 at more than 172 billion dollars.

There is currently no effective surveillance or containment of these terrorist activities.

Another South American hub of Arab terrorism has emerged recently in northern Venezuela near the border with Colombia. Thousands of terrorists now occupy an unknown number of camps in that region, and move about with the support and collaboration of the Venezuelan government. President Hugo Chavez plays host to a growing horde of Middle Eastern terrorists from some of the USAs most notorious enemies, including Libya, Saddams Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan. Thousands of Venezuelan identity cards have been legally issued to these foreigners. Such cards can be used to obtain legal travel documents and passports for unimpeded entry into other South American countries and into the USA.

These terror groups are known to work in conjunction with the Colombian anti-government insurgency group, FARC. They offer FARC terrorists safe haven in mountainous and unpatrolled regions of Northeastern Venezuela. They may provide Hugo Chavez with a covert force that can be used to support FARC against the Colombian government. Venezuelan cooperation with these terrorists may buy President Chavez a guarantee that terror assaults will not be perpetrated in his country.

Currently there are no known terror attacks that can be attributed to these groups.

American border patrol agents arrested 158 illegal aliens in Cochise County, Arizona, on 6/13/04. One agent, who speaks Farsi and Arabic, overheard dozens of detainees speaking Arabic in the back of the detention vehicle. He counted 53 of Middle Eastern rather than Hispanic origin. His superiors told him to keep that information to himself; but he reported it to the local newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed.

Just one week later, on June 21, 2004, another group of illegals were apprehended, including 24 Arabic speaking men. But at least as many or more escaped apprehension and disappeared into the United States.

Border Patrol officials deny that there have been any Middle Eastern illegals among those arrested, but individual arresting officers attest to the accuracy of that ethnic description.

Upon deeper investigation, the Tumbleweed editor learned that since October 1, 2003, Arizona border patrol agents have arrested 5,510 illegals from countries other than Mexico, Central and South America. In addition, the arresting officers noted that all of the Middle Eastern illegals sported identical haircuts and moustaches; and while their clothes were the typical illegal immigrant jeans, baseball caps and jerseys, the Middle Easterners all wore brand new clothes, still spiffy looking and clean (quite the opposite of the usual rather frazzled appearance of illegals).

Connecting the Dots:

We are witness to expanding Islamic terrorist bases in South America, operating with almost no interference from, or in collaboration with, the host countries governments; thousands of Arab terrorists training in these bases; and credible evidence that hundreds or even thousands of Arabic speaking illegals have been entering the USA through our porous border with Mexico for almost a year. Given the Border Patrol leaderships refusal to divulge the ethnic or national identities of the 5,510 non-Hispanic detainees, we cannot know how many of these thousands are Arabs.

Why would Middle Eastern terror groups spend untold millions of dollars to set up bases in South America? Certainly to benefit from the drug trade and money-laundering opportunities that lax or corrupt governments afford. Clearly, to attack South American targets (inter alia, Israeli or American embassies, Jewish communities, and/or other institutions that are involved in South American financial, political, or military interaction with the USA). Probably also to facilitate the planning and execution of future terror attacks in South America or abroad.

Why would Arabs enter the United States in such large numbers? At least some of them are likely bona fide terrorists who, once they have eluded the Border Patrol, can connect with established contacts in the American Muslim community and lay the groundwork for future terror attacks within this country. It takes a minimum of five support-staff to launch one terrorist action. How many terror attacks can we expect, now that we know now that hundreds or perhaps thousands of Arab terrorists have entered this country illegally during the past year, and are completely untraceable by law enforcement or military agencies.

Why would hundreds of these Arab terrorists sneak into America illegally via the Mexican border? The credible scenarios are:

These Arabs are known terrorists who could not enter in a simpler and more direct fashion, via our legal ports of entry; or The terror planners and strategists foresee that if our legal ports of entry were suddenly flooded with dozens or hundreds of entrants recognizable as Arabs but bearing legal South American travel documents, our immigration officials might get suspicious. Thus, to infiltrate very large numbers of terrorists into the United States in anticipation of future massive terror assaults, it would be necessary to create a base for the invaders in neighboring safe areas from which large numbers of terrorists could be transported en masse.

Questions:

Why do the official spokespersons for the Border Patrol in Arizona refuse to acknowledge what their field force tells us? Surely corroboration by several different guards on different occasions warrants public concern.

Why are Border Patrol guards instructed to keep silent about the presence of Arabs and Iranians among the many thousands of non-Hispanic illegal aliens? Surely this unusual and alarming phenomenon merits the scrutiny of the Border Patrols leadership.

Why have no mainstream media outlets publicized this infiltration of terrorists into our country? Surely such a phenomenon is newsworthy.

Conclusion:

Once we connect these dots, it becomes obvious that the presence of thousands of Arab terrorists in two separate areas of South America and the illegal entry of hundreds of Arabs via the Mexican border portend massive terror assaults against American and other targets in South America and within this nation.

It does not require much imagination to foresee that the many current Arab terror sleeper cells scattered throughout the USA and Canada today are being re-enforced with the influx of Arab terrorists from South America, an influx of such numbers that normal ports of entry cannot be used.

Can the purpose of this re-enforcement be other than an Arab terrorist plan to mount major attacks on numerous targets throughout North America? Such imaginative terror masterminds as Imad Mughniyyah or Osama bin Laden himself would surely have little difficulty figuring out how to best utilize an untraceable sleeper army of Arab terrorists waiting patiently for the signal to strike at centers of telecommunication, transportation, electric power, and even law enforcement and military bases.

Tri-Border Area Hotbed for Crime-Terror Nexus, Hezbollah Firmly Established

In the frontier town of Ciudad del Este, in February 2003, Paraguayan state security officials raided a store owned by Ali Khalil Mehri, a 32-year old businessman of Lebanese descent. They recovered Hezbollah propaganda and documentation of money transfers to Canada, Chile, the U.S. and Lebanon totaling more than $700,000. Also found were fundraising forms for an organization in the Middle East called Al-Shahid, which is dedicated to the protection of families of martyrs and prisoners. After a thorough investigation, Paraguayan prosecutors charged Mehri with selling millions of dollars of pirated software and channeling the proceeds to the Hezbollah terrorist group. Mehri, released on bail after his arrest, crossed into Brazil and then flew from Sao Paulo to Paris. Authorities now believed he is in Syria.

Mehris arrest was the first major breakthrough in the investigation of illicit Hezbollah activities in the Tri-Border Area, an almost lawless area shared by the cities of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; Foz do Iguacu, Brazil and Puerto Iguacu, Argentina. The area is known for money laundering, extortion, forgery, prostitution and illegal gambling. It has long been a resting place for drug traffickers and South American terrorist organizations such as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), but in the past decade or so it has emerged as a hotbed of Islamist terrorism as well.

As of 2002, approximately 630,000 people live in the Tri-Border Area, more than 25,000 are Arabs or of Arab descent. The Brazilian and Paraguayan cities, which are only separated by the short Puente de la Amistad (Friendship Bridge), are areas where the first settlements of immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and the Palestinian territories emerged about 50 years ago. There is a high level of Islamist political activity in the Tri-Border Area and members of international terrorist organizations, it has been reported, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), al-Fatah, and al-Qaeda have been sighted there.

Regional officials and in several U.S. agencies have also investigated connections between Islamist terrorists and drug trafficking. On May 10, 2003, police in Paraguay arrested Hassan Abdallah Dayoub as he was preparing to ship an electric piano stuffed with more than five pounds of cocaine into Syria. Dayoub is a relative of Assad Ahmad Barakat, the chief Hezbollah operative in South America. He has thus far refused to answer investigators questions about the identity of those with whom he did business.

Due to a crackdown on terrorist funding worldwide and growing international pressure on state sponsors of terrorism, terrorist groups have been turning more and more to drug trafficking to raise funds for their activities. The Taliban earned an estimated $40-50 million per year from taxes related to opium production in Afghanistan. According to the website TerrorismAnswers.org, produced by the Council on Foreign Relations, Hezbollah smuggles cocaine from South America to Europe and the Middle East and has smuggled opiates out of Lebanons Bekaa Valley.

In addition to operating in the Middle East and South America, Islamist terrorists have also been arrested in the U.S. for drug smuggling. In January 2002, the Drug Enforcement Administration apprehended 136 people in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Fresno and Carlsbad, California in a massive operation that resulted in the seizure of 179 pounds of methamphetamine, 36 tons of the over-the-counter cold medicine ingredient pseudoephedrine (which is often used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine), $4.5 million in cash, eight pieces of property and 160 automobiles. The raid prompted an investigation that yielded the first evidence of a direct flow of money from drugs in the U.S. to Islamist terrorism in the Middle East. In addition, federal agents announced in early 2002 that they have exposed an effort involving legal immigrants and visitors to use credit card thefts, cigarette sales, charitable funds and cash smuggled in airline luggage to supply funds to anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorist groups operating in the Middle East.

Islamist terrorists operating in the South American drug trade is not a new topic on Capitol Hill. In a May 2003, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) brought up Dayoubs arrest in Paraguay, saying that it demonstrates the narco-terrorist financing operations needed to support Barakat and Hezbollah. Hatch elaborated that the Tri-Border Area has long been characterized as a regional hub for radical Islamic groups, which engage in arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, money laundering and movement of pirated goods.

In an October 2002 interview on the National Public Radio show On Point, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, emphasized his belief that the war against Saddam Husseins regime should be followed up with a strike on Syrian training camps and the Iranians who finance Hezbollah. He said the three reasons he sees Hezbollah and its supporters as a greater immediate threat than Iraq are:

Hezbollahs enthusiasm to kill Americans (previous to September 11, 2001, more Americans had died at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists than any other group);
The groups access to funds and resources, and;
Their presence in the U.S.
In September 2002, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage declared that Hezbollah would eventually become a U.S. target, to which Hezbollahs spokesman, Hassan Ezzeddin, replied The American administration will be held accountable for any offensive against Lebanon, and we emphasize that we are in full readiness to confront any eventuality and defend our people.

Jeffrey Goldberg, author of In the Party of God, which appeared in The New Yorker in October 2002, was also a guest on the radio show. Goldberg spent over a month in the Middle East and three weeks in the Tri-Border Area researching Hezbollah and their international funding and activities. He recounted crossing the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay with extreme ease, and being offered an AK-47 rifle for $375. The price even included a hotel delivery. When he asked about acquiring explosives, he was told that was also possible.

In the Party of God details how terrorist organizations make money from even legitimate businesses in the area. The Islamic fundamentalists extort business owners and force them to make a monthly donation - one that will save their shop and family from possible harm. Investigators in South America believe that over the past few years, Islamist terrorists have raised tens of millions of dollars - one Paraguayan official even told Goldberg that in one year Hezbollah raised $12 million in the Tri-Border Area alone. In addition, Paraguay has no anti-terror law, which in many countries allows for the seizure of terrorist funds and bans donations to terrorist organizations. The lack of such a law makes donating money to a terrorist organization in the Tri-Border Area as easy as donating to the Red Cross is in the U.S.

The absence of anti-terror laws makes it almost impossible for U.S. and regional authorities to arrest suspects. Because the organization and channeling of money is similar to the way organized crime operated in the 1930s in the U.S., the only charge officials can try to arrest the terrorists on is tax evasion. In addition, many officials believe that Paraguay in particular is extremely hesitant to prosecute or conduct investigations into Middle Eastern terrorists because the Tri-Border Area is the largest center of commerce in the country and the Arab community there is often described as the pillar of economic activity. If the Arab community abandons the region en masse, Paraguays already unstable economy would further deteriorate.

Paraguay is the one country of the three that has done the least to curb Islamist terrorists in the area because of the massive corruption at even the highest levels of the government. In the article Paraguays Ciudad del Este and the New Centers of Gravity by Colonel William W. Mendel, U.S. Army (ret.), published in the March-April 2002 issue of Military Review, the journal of the U.S. Armys Command and General Staff College, Paraguayan police estimate that about 70 percent of the 600,000 cars in Paraguay were purchased on the black market, with at least a portion of the profits likely going to terrorist groups.

Corruption runs to the topmost ranks of government in Paraguay. Court officials and police say that even the Presidents BMW and his wifes Mercedes were purchased on the black market and were probably stolen. Both cars claimed the same title document, which was issued for a Toyota. And, in September 2001, the Paraguayan consul in Miami was arrested for selling over 300 passports and visas since 1999.

Many believe the U.S. has not done enough in the Tri-Border Area to halt the terrorism. According to Jonathan Goldberg (no relation to Jeffrey Goldberg), in his December, 2002 article Blind Eye in The American Prospect, the U.S. agenda for the region puts fiscal crises, trade negotiations, and local terrorist groups such as the FARC above Islamist terrorism. And although the DEA and State Department have representatives investigating drug-related activity in the Tri-Border Area and throughout Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, little attention is paid to the corruption within the highest ranks of the governments. Meanwhile, according to Juan Belikow, a professor at Argentinas School of National Defense, Islamist terrorists and their supporters in South America are branching out into other regions such as Panamas Colon Free Trade Zone, Iquique, Chile; Maicao, Colombia; and Chui, Brazil.

In an interview with The Sunday Times of London on Dec. 15, 2002, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat unwittingly provided the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism with a major insight into the evolving strategy of Osama bin Ladens al Qaeda terrorist network.

Arafat asked Times interviewer Marie Colvin, Why is Bin Laden talking about Palestine now? Bin Laden never, not ever, stressed this issue. He never helped us. He was working in a completely different area and against our interests.

Arafat gave the interview after statements attributed to al Qaedas Political Office of Qaeda al-Jihad were published on the Islamic extremist web sites www.azfalrasa.com and www.mojahedoon.net, claiming responsibility for Novembers bomb attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya and an unsuccessful missile attack against an Israeli civilian airliner departing Mombasa for Tel Aviv. The statements also announced the launch of an Islamic al Qaeda Organization in Palestine that would serve as a powerful basis for restoring the rights of our Arab and Islamic people in Palestine.

In todays world arena, Islamic terror leaders such as Arafat and bin Laden utilize false piety and liberation movements to attract disciples and mask their own personal aspirations for power. But it seems highly unlikely that these two megalomaniacs, who seem more comfortable performing in front of a camera than behind a gun, could ever amicably share the limelight of the Palestinian cause.

There is little love lost between the two terror kingpins. Arafat and bin Laden are in fierce competition for the financial backing of Sunni Muslim extremists, a competition bin Laden has been steadily winning since Arafats support of Saddam Husseins 1990 invasion of Kuwait and his signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 angered jihadist supporters in the Persian Gulf states.

Strategically, there is very little that either Arafat or bin Laden would substantively gain from an alliance. Aligning with bin Laden would only serve to further alienate Arafat and the Palestinian Authority from the United States. And while Palestinian terrorists have shown that they are willing to turn themselves into human bombs, they have not evidenced any of the sophistication and planning that has been the trademark of al Qaeda operations.

Many analysts feel that engaging in the Palestinian cause is an attempt by bin Laden to co-opt the movement away from the foundering Arafat and to solidify al Qaeda as a global front for Islamic action in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and Israel.

However, Arafats comments appear indicative of the fact that al Qaeda had not planned the Kenya attacks in coordination with, nor made any overtures to, any of the leading Sunni Muslim terrorist organizations engaged in attacks on Israel.

What appears most likely is that the entry of al Qaeda into the Palestinian fray is a byproduct of growing ties between al Qaeda and the Iranian and Syrian-backed Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Despite common foes, Sunni and Shiite Muslims are separated by a deep-seated, faith-based animosity and a history of cultural conflict that dates back to a 7th century religious schism in Islam. Hezbollahs close dealing with Sunni Palestinian terrorists has been a noticeable exception.

With a U.S.-Iraq war now becoming a near certainty, the Bush administration has actively courted Iranian cooperation (or at least neutrality), and turned a blind eye towards that rogue nations own program to develop weapons of mass destruction. Iran has a far more advanced and dynamic nuclear program than its axis of evil counterparts, Iraq and North Korea, and an ongoing long-range missile program. However, Iran has not been the focus of military action or international isolation like its counterparts.

This soft handling has not gone unnoticed by hard-liners in Tehran and has translated into a proliferation in Hezbollah activity in Lebanon, Israel, Europe and South America. An alliance between Hezbollah and al Qaeda brings to the Intifadah (Palestinian uprising), a level of sophistication, planning, training and global reach that has been noticeable absent from Sunni Palestinian terrorism and significantly raises the operational tempo of terrorist forces arrayed against Israel.

More importantly to Hezbollah, the alliance provides the Shiite terrorist organization with a proxy by which to attack the United States. During this years annual Jerusalem Day parade in Lebanon, the secretary general of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, denounced what he perceived as the United States plan to control the region, to redraw the political map of the region and criticized the dangerous and satanic goals of the United States and Israel.

Clearly, Hezbollahs leadership sees the growing war on terrorism as the first major threat to the radical Islamic stranglehold on Lebanon since the withdrawal of American troops in the 1980s and Israeli troops in May 2000.

Conceivably, it would be in Hezbollahs interest to maintain the focus of the war on terrorism on Sunni extremists. They will likely seek to accomplish this task by putting aside ideological differences and assist in rejuvenating an al Qaeda network - severely hobbled by the loss of bases in Afghanistan - and its surviving financial, logistical and operational cells worldwide.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources believe that the guiding hand behind such an alliance would be Hezbollahs Imad Mugniyeh, the alleged mastermind behind the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine base in Beirut, Lebanon, and a key facilitator of Islamic terrorism worldwide.

An alliance with Hezbollah would provide al Qaeda with vital access to one of the worlds most prolific drug production and smuggling networks, an ominous development for the United States and the West.

During his January 2002 State of the Union speech, President Bush identified Iran, Iraq and North Korea as rogue nations who constituted an axis of evil which provide terrorists the means to match their hatred. The United States has effectively applied international pressure, the threat of military action, and the implementation of aggressive means of financial interdiction to stymie the flow of resources to al Qaeda from its state sponsors.

However, a network of drug production and smuggling controlled largely by Hezbollah may provide al Qaeda with the means necessary to continue its inhuman campaign against civilization. This network is centered on a transnational triangle of illicit activity conducted from areas of Lebanon, the Balkans, and the tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

All three regions have unstable, often corrupt, government structures with weak economic platforms. Their porous borders and largely unsupervised waterways and airfields are highly conducive to the conducting of illicit operations that go undetected.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah utilized the Bekaa Valley region to produce and smuggle opiates and hashish into Europe until international pressure prompted Syria to institute an aggressive counter-narcotics program in 1992. After the U.S. liberation of Afghanistan in 2001, Syria effectively ended its efforts to deter cultivation or to eradicate illicit cultivation.

A U.S. State Department report on drug trafficking released in early 2002 stated that unlike in recent years, Syria did not use its influence in Lebanon to assist Lebanon in suppressing cannabis cultivation and harvesting in the Bekaa Valley. Moreover, the report identified that this fact led to a sharp increase in hashish production in Lebanon, and estimated that over 4,010 hectares of land was being used for hashish production.

In the Balkans, a prolific drug-smuggling operation is being conducted along the Balkan Road running through the fluid borders of Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. The Balkan Road is considered the doorway to Europe and North America and accounts for over 80 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of the continents heroin trade.

On Sept. 17, 2002, a Debka-Net-Weekly report (Socialist-Albanian Election Win Leaves Macedonians in Pit of Despair) identified a 1,400-square-mile enclave in Macedonia running from Crna Gora and Sar Plan (near Tetovo) in the north to the divided lake districts of Ohrid and Pripsankso Ezero in the south that is controlled by Islamic drug lords aligned with Imad Mughniyeh. Western intelligence sources believe that Mughniyeh has long viewed the Balkans as the gateway to an Islamic conquest of Europe and utilized Albania and Kosovo as the main base for Islamic armed action in Europe.

As in Afghanistan, the armed Islamic militants guarding this operation are former U.S. allies, primarily the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) - renamed the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) after the NATO-Serbian conflict in the spring of 1999 - and its Macedonian counterpart, the National Liberation Army (NLA), which both have a long history of smuggling drugs as a means of raising funds for weapons. According to the France-based Geopolitical Observatory of Drugs, the KLA was responsible for smuggling over $2 billion in drugs into Western Europe. Janes Intelligence Review estimates that the KLAs profit from these ventures is in the high tens of millions.

The tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, has been identified by the U.S. State Department as a focal point for Islamic extremism in Latin America and represents a major hemispheric threat to the United States. Hezbollah has maintained an active and growing presence in the region and is believed responsible for at least two attacks in Buenos Aires; the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.

The Latin American center of Hezbollahs narco-terrorism is the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este, under the operational command of successful businessman Assad Ahmad Barakat. Barakats chief aide, Sobhi Mahmoud Fayad, was arrested in 1998 for an alleged conspiracy to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paraguay, and again in 2002 for alleged participation in a money-laundering ring.

Drug-trafficking routes through the tri-border region have brought Hezbollah into close contact with the powerful drug lords throughout the Andean region of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Virtually all of the worlds cocaine production is conducted in these three countries and it is believed that collective synergies have been developed between Islamic terrorists and Latin American narco-terrorists such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Perus Shinning Path.

Ali Mohamed Mukhlis, a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and closely linked to top al Qaeda lieutenant Ayman al Zawahiri, heralded an al Qaeda presence in the tri-border region when he was apprehended by Uruguayan authorities in 1999 in connection with a plot to bomb the U.S. Embassies in Paraguay and Uruguay. Authorities linked Mukhlis to an operational cell in Ciudad del Este.

The combination of illicit narcotics and terrorism is an alluring proposition for al Qaeda.

First, the financial windfall of the drug trade is highly lucrative. The Golden Crescent countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan, bin Ladens former lair of choice, are the worlds largest producers of heroin, growing in excess of $50 billion in street value annually - over 70 percent of the worlds heroin supply. The al Qaeda-Taliban regime had actually formalized the revenue-generating aspect of opium production in Afghanistan by imposing a ten percent zakat (tax) on all opium transactions.

Denied access to their former Afghan bases and with state sponsorship of terrorism aggressively scrutinized and financial institutions being closely monitored, drug trafficking presents a viable alternative form of financing for al Qaeda.

Second, there is a highly synergistic effect in an alliance between terrorists and drug lords. Traffickers and terrorists have parallel logistical needs in terms of weapons, fraudulent documents and the covert movement of operative, shipments and funds.

The smuggling routes through Lebanon, the Balkans and South America traverse highly volatile regions and face the increasing specter of government interdiction. Drug traffickers benefit from the military expertise and equipment that terrorist organizations are able wield in defense of these coveted routes

On March 13, 2002, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Rand Beers provided testimony on the benefits to terrorists from this symbiotic relationship before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information.

Beers explained that not only do terrorists gain a source of revenue, but also equally important, they acquire a means of illicit transfer and laundering of proceeds from illicit transactions. Moreover, the drug trade often ensnares corruptible officials who can provide access to fraudulent documents, including passports and customs papers.

Officials at the U.S. Immigration and Nationalization Service have expressed concern that a growing Islamic presence in Latin America may lead to ties with criminal organizations in Mexico that have proven highly successful in smuggling people and materials undetected into the United States.

Finally, al Qaeda would seek to strategically weaken Western society through the flooding of North America and Europe with illicit drugs.

Western analysts believe that Hezbollah, which receives significant amounts of overt military and financial aid from Iran and Syria, is involved in drug trafficking predominantly for the purpose of the facilitating the fall of the West through drug addiction.

Osama bin Laden has on several occasions advocated the use of opiates to weaken the West. It is this strategy that wreaked havoc on the Soviet military during the Soviet-Afghan War and strongly contributed to their defeat.

By the end of the Soviet-Afghan War in February 1989, the Afghan guerilla groups were producing more heroin than major illicit drug producers Iran and Pakistan combined. The result was a flooding of the Soviet Union and Europe with high quality, low-cost narcotics. Soviet Afghan War veteran Lt. Col. Yuri Shvedov claimed the Soviets had found significant evidence that this was the product of a systematic program. Rampant drug addiction in the Soviet forces in Afghanistan translated into a dramatic drop in morale and operational efficiency that later led to a crippling drug problem within the Soviet Union itself.

The mounting evidence of an al Qaeda-Hezbollah alliance should be of paramount concern to the Bush administration. The synergies created by the alliance will significantly raise the operational capabilities of terrorist forces and infuse bin Ladens global terror cooperative with crucial funding. Already in the fall of 2002 we have seen the reemergence of a reinvigorated al Qaeda manifested in attacks in Indonesia, Kuwait, Yemen and Kenya.

The lines between traditional terrorism and drug trafficking are becoming increasingly blurred, signaling a possible convergence of the drug war and the war on terrorism. Islamic terrorists are forming symbiotic relationships with narcotics traffickers in urban and quasi-urban regions in the Third World such as Lebanon, the Balkans and Latin America, where Western governments have been traditionally reluctant to enter into military action.

As retired Vice Adm. Arthur Cebrowski pointed out during an interview with The Navy Times on Nov. 12, 2002, by not engaging terrorists in these regions we are essentially providing them with sanctuary, which is unacceptable.

SNIPPET: “With little notice in the main stream media, Iran has been cementing its relationships with regimes in Venezuela & Bolivia, both countries under the control of strongmen friendly to communism. Iran is a main funder of terrorism throughout the world, For them to gain a foothold in Latin America, does not bode well for peace in our hemisphere.

Recently I spoke with Bolivian elected representative Senator Carmen Gonzales. She has had the courage to stand up and speak out about the repression besetting her country and its ever closer alliances with Iran. She has been the object of continual harassment by the government for her vocal opposition; including being buried in lawsuits (18) designed to silence her.

Tell us about Iran’s influence in Bolivia?

The influence of the Iranian theocracy in Bolivia is very wide and deep. Iran has inked many agreements with Bolivia, both known and unknown to the Bolivian people. I have demanded to know the extent of these agreements, but as of yet there has been no response from the leadership. Iran is interested in our mining industry, gas and uranium. Iran is interested in expanding its influence in Latin America, to provoke the United States. It is very advantageous to Iran to have the friendship of the Bolivian regime, with all of its natural resources, including uranium and being strategically placed in the center of the continent.”

SNIPPET: “I am also worried as a Bolivian, what may happen to the Jewish community here.

Recently, the Iranian defense minister was with our ruler, Evo Morales. That same minister is under orders for international prosecution, accused by an Argentine federal judge to be part of the deaths of hundreds of Jewish-Argentine AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina in 1994).

So, it is very dangerous for the Jewish community the fact that Bolivia has relations with Iran.”

SNIPPET: “Since Bolivian leadership has signed agreements with Iran as well as Venezuela, there is clear worry that these countries can serve as bases for terrorist activities against neighboring countries and become a springboard for jihadism. With Iran racing toward nuclear weapons capability, there is no doubt in many circles, that technology can filter to enemies of the US. The exporting of nuclear weapons technology to Latin America would cause huge political disruption to this region.”

SNIPPET: “”There’s pretty much of a general consensus within the intelligence community that Iranian-backed cells providing financial support to Hezbollah could easily convert to operational cells and light up the place,” says U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, a Republican whose district stretches from Austin to Houston.”

SNIPPET: “McCaul said Hezbollah is fundraising with impunity in the tri-border area surrounded by Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, where some 30,000 Lebanese expatriates and immigrants live among a population of 800,000.

He said enterprising businesses there are being required to tithe as much as 2 percent of gross revenues to the Lebanon-based terrorist organization.”

SNIPPET: “Congressional investigators working for the GOP majority estimate there are now “at least hundreds of Hezbollah operatives” in the U.S., said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.”

SNIPPET: “But the State Department’s annual report on terrorism concluded “there were no known operational cells of either al-Qaida or Hezbollah in the hemisphere.””

SNIPPET: “This caught my eye. The DEA case began as an FBI operation in 2006, when FBI sources caught wind of an effort by Hizballah, represented here by Mr. Yousef, to sell arms to a Mexican drug cartel.”

“Lebanese Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Conspiring to Provide Material Support to Terrorists “

U.S. Attorneys Office
October 11, 2012

Southern District of New York

SNIPPET: “Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Jamal Yousef, a/k/a Talal Hassan Ghantou, a native of Lebanon, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 12 years in prison for conspiring to provide military-grade weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC), a foreign terrorist organization, in exchange for over a ton of cocaine. Yousef pled guilty in May 2012 to one count of providing material support to the FARC before U.S. District Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska. U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan imposed todays sentence.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, Jamal Yousef was ready, willing, and able to provide an arsenal of weapons and explosives to people he believed to be part of a terrorist organization, dedicated, in part, to killing Americans. Thanks once again to our partnerships with law enforcement both here and abroad, he will now go to prison.”

“Lawmaker urges feds to monitor Hezbollah in Mexico”
By Joseph Kolb
Published October 29, 2012
FoxNews.com

SNIPPET: “The presidential campaign has featured plenty of talk about terrorism in the Middle East, but one lawmaker is warning that the federal government is ignoring a growing Hezbollah presence in Mexico, with the Lebanese terror group increasingly joining forces with drug cartels.

One report shows hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners living in Mexico, and a small percentage of them may be radicals using routes established by drug networks to sneak into the U.S.”

SNIPPET: “Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) says the mounting evidence of a Hezbollah presence in Mexico is being ignored by the Department of Homeland Security.

“I don’t have a lot of faith in the Department of Homeland Security,” said Myrick. “They should be looking at these groups in Mexico much more closely.””

SNIPPET: “An Argentine prosecutor has accused Iran of trying to infiltrate countries in Latin America to sponsor and carry out “terrorist activities”.

Alberto Nisman said Iran was attempting to set up intelligence-gathering stations in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and other countries in the region.

Mr Nisman is investigating a bomb attack that killed 85 people in a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires in 1994.”

SNIPPET: “”I legally accuse Iran of infiltrating several South American countries to install intelligence stations - in other words espionage bases - destined to commit, encourage and sponsor terror attacks like the one that took place against Amia,” Mr Nisman was quoted as saying, referring to the Jewish centre bombed nearly 20 years ago.

He said the countries targeted included Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Surinam.

And he claimed that Mohsen Rabbani - the Iranian former cultural attache in Buenos Aires who Argentina blames for the Amia attack - was co-ordinating the alleged infiltration operation.”

SNIPPET: “The State Department released its Country Reports on Terrorism 2012 yesterday. The year 2012 witnessed a “marked resurgence of Iran’s state sponsorship of terrorism, through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), its Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and Tehran’s ally Hezballah,” State concluded. “Iran and Hezbollah’s terrorist activity has reached a tempo unseen since the 1990s, with attacks plotted in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa.””

SNIPPET: “The State Department’s report confirms, once again, that Iran sponsors terrorists and militants throughout the world.”

WASHINGTON  The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of Colombian nationals Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz and his son, Henry Guberek Grimberg, as well as 29 other individuals and entities, including companies located in Colombia, Panama, and Israel, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNTs). These 31 individuals and entities together form a money laundering network responsible for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money connected to drug trafficking organizations, including Ayman Saied Joumaa and Linares Castillo who were both previously designated by the Treasury Department. In a separate action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Drug Enforcement Administrations (DEA) Miami Field Division announced the filing of criminal charges against four defendants, including Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz, Henry Guberek Grimberg, and Johanna Patricia Ceballos-Bueno — designated by Treasury today — all Colombian nationals, for their participation in an international money laundering conspiracy in which they laundered millions of dollars for transnational drug trafficking organizations.

Todays action builds upon the U.S. governments continued campaign to target global narcotics networks, including that run by Joumaa whose global narcotics enterprises have stretched from South America to Africa and have benefited terrorist groups such as Hizballah. By designating the individuals and entities behind this money laundering organization, the Treasury Department is taking another step to protect the international financing system from abuse by narcotics traffickers, money launderers, and terrorists.

Money laundering is the lifeblood of the narcotics trafficking world, said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. Our action against this major money laundering network strikes a powerful blow at the illicit profits flows of criminals like Ayman Joumaa and Linares Castillo.

Drug traffickers only motive to enter the illegal drug trade is the money, and they will go to any length to hide and protect their proceeds. These bad actors often depend on international businesses to facilitate the illegal movement of their drug profits. Whether you are a successful businessman or a secretary, if you assist drug traffickers you will face the same justice, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Mark R. Trouville.

Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz, a Colombian national, and his son, Henry Guberek Grimberg, a dual Colombian and Israeli national, lead a money laundering network based in Bogota, Colombia that launders narcotics proceeds on behalf of numerous drug trafficking organizations, including organizations based in Colombia. Narcotics traffickers such as Ayman Saied Joumaa, previously designated by the Treasury Department in January 2011, and Jose Evaristo Linares Castillo, designated in February 2013 are known to have laundered their drug proceeds through this money laundering network.

Several family members and associates of Guberek Ravinovicz and Guberek Grimberg were also designated today for materially supporting the principals money laundering activities and/or for helping to manage their companies. The family members include Henry Guberek Grimbergs two brothers, Felipe Guberek Grimberg, a businessman currently residing in Israel, and Arieh Guberek Grimberg, a licensed soccer (futbol) agent. The business associates include Johanna Patricia Ceballos Bueno, the secretary of Guberek Ravinovicz and Guberek Grimberg, who manages the day-to-day operations of the network from their offices in Bogota.

Guberek Ravinovicz and Guberek Grimberg primarily rely upon the use of ostensibly legitimate textile companies within Colombia to engage in trade-based money laundering. Using bank accounts for these companies, as well as accounts belonging to a series of shell companies in Panama, Guberek Ravinovicz and Guberek Grimberg provide a means for traffickers to transfer narcotics proceeds back to Colombia from locations all over the world, with drug money transiting additional accounts in Spain, Hong Kong, the United States, Mexico, China, Israel, the Cayman Islands, and Venezuela, as well as other locations in Europe and Central America.

Todays action, taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), generally prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these entities and individuals, and freezes any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

This action would not have been possible without the support of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Treasury Department has designated more than 1,200 individuals and entities linked to 103 drug kingpins since June 2000. Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1.075 million per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $5 million. Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million. Other individuals face up to 10 years in prison and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act.

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